Saturday, 26 January 2008

Not quite the Final Score

I tuned into BBC 1's Final Score as usual this afternoon, and was annoyed to find that they had decided not to broadcast any Scottish League results - just the SPL. The Welsh and Blue Square Premier results had disappeared, too. Last year the Beeb tried to drop Scottish League 3 results at the beginning of the season, but restored them after complaints. Rightly so. The 'hats' who run the Corporation may be predominantly English and London-focused, but this kind of thing (and the fact that Scottish football highlights are not broadcast on terrestrial TV in Scotland on a Saturday night) is an insult to a sizeable section of the audience. The BBC is a multi-national public service institution, and its viewers in Scotland and Wales have every reason to expect a comprehensive TV results service. On this occasion they will no doubt claim that "there wasn't time", because of the live FA Cup broadcast following at 17.15. Nonsense. It would take a little over a minute to read these results, and few would complain about losing a minute of often uninspiring comment from the studio panel. What people do want, however, is full information. [Pic: Final Score chief presenter Ray Stubbs, (c) BBC]

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